• In March, the Administrative Office of the Courts revealed a slight increase in federal litigation in 2014, but a much larger increase in prisoner lawsuits. Leading the upturn was Dale Maisano, 63, serving 15 years for aggravated assault, who last year alone filed 3,613 cases concerning his Florence, Arizona, facility. Counting previous prison stints, Maisano has filed 6,076 complaints against various officials and prison system health-care providers. (In a 2014 USA Today report, Maisano volunteered that he himself "could use some mental health help.") [Washington Post, 3-20-2015]

• Chicago's WGN-TV was forced to apologize in March for a misjudgment in booking its "Morning Show" after an unconventional "circus" performer, in a live-television publicity segment, took a power saw to a metal box affixed to her crotch. "Dancer" Shana Vaughan-Gabor, of the Cirque De La Femme, created a dazzling shower of sparks, provoking the male host to first demand that the camera cut away, but then admitting, "I've been waiting my whole life to meet a woman like this." In the follow-up segment, a group of children who had witnessed the scene used descriptions like "creepy" and "stinky," but Vaughan-Gabor later urged the station to "save the children from 'boring' (entertainment)." [Daily Mail (London), 3-18-2015]